Improved rail-set



UNITED STATES PATENT FFIGE.

i GEORGE PATTERSON, OF AUGUSTA, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVED RAI L-SET.

Specification forming part 0f Letters Patent No. 73,033, dated January 7, 186.8.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE PATTERSON, of Augusta, in the county of Kalamazoo and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Device for Bending and Straightening Railroad-Rails; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this speciiication, in which- Figure l is a plan view of a section of railtrack, showing my improved device applied to one of the rails thereof ready for use. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the device.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

^ The object of this invention is to provide a device by which the rails of a railroad-track can be bent or straightened whether the rails are secured down upon the cross-ties or not. From a variety of causes the rails of railroads become bent out of line, so as to render the passage of trains over them very dangerous, and, for the want of a device by which the rails could be readily straightened and brought to the proper gage, proper attention has not been. paid to the track in this respect. To supply such Want, the nature of my invention consists in a bow or brace having hooked ends, which will gripe the rail on one side, and which is provided with a screwV and-lever power in such manner that one person can bend or straighten a rail with very little labor, as will be hereafter explained.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand my invention, I will describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, A A represent railroad-rails secured down to cross-ties B B in the usual well-known manner. O represents a frame, which may be made in the form of a half-circle or the segment of a circle, or of any other suitable form which will afford two legs or arms having their ends bent so as to form hooks for hooking over the rail, as shown. This frame O should be straightened, so as to sustain the strain to which it will be subjected while iu use. The semicircular or arched frame O is believed to be the simplest and strongest that can be used.

D represents a screw which is tapped centrally through the frame O and provided with a perforated head, c, on one end for receiving a lever, E. On the opposite end of the screw D is a head, b, which is adapted for tting against one side of a rail during the operation of bending or straightening it. The lever E may be made in the form of a crow-bar, so that it may be also used for drawing spikes and other purposes.

The drawing Fig. l shows the manner of applying the device to a rail for bending or straightening it. The hooks on the ends of the frame O are placed 011 one side of a rail, and the head b on the screw D brought 'up against the opposite side of the rail. As the head b of the screw isvat equal distances from both of the hooked legs of frame O, it will be seen that the bending or straightening will be equal on both sides of this head.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

The within-described device, O D E, adapted for bending or straightening railroad-rails, substantially as specified.

GEORGE PATTERSON.

Witnesses:

C. W. Cock, H. N. HOBART. 

